


The Guest

by Pixel_Runner



Category: Predator Creature, The Predator (2018), teratophilia - Fandom
Genre: Blood, F/M, Forced Nudity, Gore, Gruesome Death, Human Biology, Just don't even, Live Dangerously - Publish First Drafts, Men in Black - Freeform, Not Beta Read, Plot, Predator Biology, Some Humor, Trigger Warnings, completely gross, interigation, it's predator, its a mess, some smut, the dog lives, they are nasty SOBs, trying not to be excessively horrible
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-07-14 15:59:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixel_Runner/pseuds/Pixel_Runner
Summary: After the first predator escaped the lab and the second one killed him, and died in turn.  Someone had to clean up the crime scene.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not my regular fandom. I'm sure I'm getting this all wrong.

“Holy shit! What happened here?” Matthew asked tipping a table back onto its feet.  The restraints attached were both huge and broken

 

Lauren shook her head, “You’re new, but if you want to keep your job, you have got to learn not to ask.”

 

Matthew looked around what was left of a research lab, “But there is blood everywhere!”

 

“Yeah.  That’s why were are here.  To clean it up,” Dave said, rolling his eyes while shoveling up dead computer parts and loading them into a wheelbarrow.

 

Matthew was clearly bothered by the restraints.  The table was stainless steel. It had been positioned over a drain in the floor.  “But what if they were testing ebola or something -”

 

Lauren gritted her teeth before interrupting.  “Ok, first, stop talking. Second, the biohazard team has already been here.  We are just housekeeping. By the time we get here, all the badness is gone and we just have to clean up the mess..  Sweep up the broken glass, wash the floor. Haul the broken equipment out to the dumpster. You don’t have enough clearance to clean anything exciting.  We just clean up at the very end, after everyone more important is done.” She looked around the room. It was completely trashed, there was glass everywhere.  Still, “I’ve been doing this for five years and the team ahead of us has never missed so much as a shell casing.”

 

“So, why aren’t they the ones sweeping up the mess?”

 

Dave and Lauren laughed, “It’s below their pay grade!” they chorus.  Matthew pouted, it was clearly a long standing joke. As the newbie he wasn’t in on them yet. 

 

Lauren was willing to admit, she was a bit surprised at all the broken glass.  The bullet proof glass wall around the room were covered in arterial spray, but still intact.  Desks and work benches were scattered around, but there wasn’t a single piece of paper left in the place.  No surprise.

 

“It looks like they were experimenting on Bruce Banner in here.” Matthew mused.

 

Shrugging, Lauren said, “Dunno, looks pretty normal to me.”

 

And because fate is clearly a bitch, that was when they heard gun fire.

 

Matthew flinched.  Lauren and Dave tried to ignore it.  

 

“Nothing to do with us, get back to work,” Dave instructed, waving with his shovel.  

 

A moment later the inch thick plate glass wall that was barely scuffed where the bullets hit from the first incident shattered into a million pieces.  Just as Dave’s head exploded. Matthew turned, swinging his broom at whatever was shooting at them as Lauren ducked and covered her head screaming uncontrolably.  Her back was to the shooter but Matthew’s chest now has a hole as big as her fist in and he slumped forward onto the floor. She didn’t even turn to look. Who ever it was, had to be standing behind her.  She could hear the crunch of glass as he walked towards her. There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. She stopped screaming and raised her shaking hands. Who ever it was knelt next to her, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off his body.

 

There was a weird clicking, squawking noise like a woodpecker and a crow not cawing but clucking. Lauren squeezed her eyes shut.  He leaned closer and sniffed. She was trembling so hard that if he didn’t shoot her soon she was going to pass out.

 

And then she did.

 

When she woke up the MP’s had questions.  A lot of questions. She wasn’t sure how long they kept her in that windowless room with the one way mirror.  But they kept asking until she just didn’t know any more. “Look! It all happened in about five seconds, less than a minute for sure.  I was facing the wrong way to see anything. I know you want a description of the shooter, but I just didn’t see anything! And I’m sorry, because I want to help.  I worked with Dave for years. I want you to get whoever killed him and Matthew. But I just. Didn’t. See. Anything.”

 

At that point, someone who looked like he stepped out of a Tommy Lee Jones - Will Smith movie grabbed her by the arm and lead her out of the building.  In handcuffs. It was already dark outside and Lauren suddenly understood that she wasn’t going home. Not tonight, probably not ever. She wanted to fight, to run, but she was cuffed and there were a whole team of heavily armed guards watching her.  The ten of them, walking across a dark compound to a troop transport vehicle . The eight of them getting to the doors of the bus.

 

“Where’s Jack and Terry?” one asked.  They looked around and shrugged. Someone ran back to the building to see if they were still signing out.

 

He didn’t come back.

 

For the second time that day, Lauren heard gun fire.  The soldiers all drew weapons and started looking around.  Lauren wiggled out of their grasp and slid under the bus. She curled into a the fetal position and waited for the screaming to stop.  Screaming and … was that roaring? What the hell?

 

Eventually, everything went quiet and Lauren crawled out from under the truck.  The soldiers were dead. Not just regular dead, ugly dead. The big one was had been ripped in half and Lauren couldn’t see his head. The others where missing hand and guns. And one looked flayed.  Lauren staggered away from the mess, tripping on someone’s entrails and into the yard where her body tried really hard to be sick. She hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so all she managed was dry heaving.  But she did a lot of it. When she was finally able to stop, she sat up, wiped her mouth and mumbled, “Well, anything worth doing…” It wasn’t funny, she knew it wasn’t funny.

 

Maybe it was the lack of food, but the air in front of her shimmered and she tried to get to her feet.  She looked around. The base seemed completely deserted. God damn it. “Ok. You can do this,” she told herself.  “One of those bodied must have the keys to these cuffs. And the keys to the truck and I can get out of here and….  Get hunted down and killed by my own government. Fuck. I am so screwed.” She sat and whimpered for a moment. “OK.  I don’t want to go touch those bodies, but it isn’t that much worse than my job, right? Yes it is. Who am I trying to fool?  I don’t want to do this but I can’t just sit around and wait for whatever killed them to come back.”

 

By the time she found the keys on the second body, she was covered in blood to her knees and elbows, but she got out of the cuffs and managed to get the truck started.  She didn’t know where to go. The guards at the gates were dead. There was a five mile drive through the woods to get to the highway. The road was well lit and wide and eerily deserted.  Lauren was shaking, but she kept driving.

 

Right up until the truck crashed into something invisible.

 

Good thing she was wearing her seat belt.

 

\----

 

Lauren woke up feeling hungover. She was also cold.  Prying an eye open she realized the cold was because she was naked and laying on a metal floor.  The room was dimly lit and the walls looked organic, like she was in the hollow under a ginormous tree and the roots were the support beams holding up the ceiling.  Everything around her was grey. Everything that was her hurt. She tried to push herself off the floor but her muscles were stiff and aching like the time she tried a personal trainer at the gym.  No. This was worse. She could barely turn her head. 

 

There was a red light coming from that room.  It took Lauren a couple of tries to get upright and hobble to the door. The seven foot tall … thing on the other side was like nothing she had ever seen. It oozed malevolent danger.  And testosterone. She must have made some small noise because it turned on her. Three little red dots appeared on her chest. Right between her naked breasts. 

 

Lauren threw herself back through the door and flattened herself against the wall.   Frantically looking around the room she couldn’t see another exit. And he knew she was here. 

 

Wait. 

 

“Why am I not dead?”

 

There was a slow, deep noise from the other side of the doorway. He was laughing at her.  Lauren whimpered. “I’m not complaining, at all. I mean don’t go out of your way to change that.  Umm! I just….” she trailed off. The laughing got louder. Knowing it wasn’t going to work, she had to at least ask, “Can I go home? Uh.  Please?”

 

It was her voice that said her words, “And get hunted down by my own government.”

 

“Oh. Right.”  She thought about that for a moment. “Is that why I’m here?”

 

There was no reply. 

 

Finally she was so freaked out and cold and hungry, she peaked around the corner. He grabbed her arm and hauled her over to a ledge.  He sat her on it, then pulled out a really big knife. Lauren screamed in terror and covered her face with shaking hands as tears ran down her face. 

 

There was a wet, slicing sound. Like someone cutting up a raw chicken.  But no pain and when she peeked he was carving thin slices off a leg roast.   Of something. Some unidentifiable animal. Lauren was trying to remember enough anatomy to tell the leg looked human, when a bowl of raw meat was shoved in her direction.  Lauren cringed. The creature … well, she couldn’t tell if he was looking at her. His eyes were just flat black lens. Lauren knew she was staring at him, but couldn’t bring herself to look away.

 

He pushed the bowl of raw meat at her again and nodded at it.

 

Lauren couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

 

With a strange grumbling noise, he removed what turned out to be a face mask.

 

The face underneath was way worse.  The eyes were yellow and too close together.  It had no nose or lips, but had four big mandibles in front of a distinctly carnivorous set of teeth.  Lauren’s eyes went wide, she tried to inch away, but suddenly his hand were gripping the ledge on each side of her legs.  The mandibles opened at it roared.

 

Lauren leaned back.

 

“Whoa, dude!  Brush your teeth!”  It was out before she could stop it.  “I am so dead,” this came out a whimper.

 

The creature picked up the bowl and with careful movements used the mandibles to select a meat strip and feed it delicately into the mouth behind them.

 

“That is cool.”

 

It held the bowl out to her again.

 

“I … I can’t eat that.  People, I mean … human people get all kinds of sick from eating raw meat.”

 

It made the creepy clicking noise she had heard in the lab.  Then it got a cup of liquid and used the mandibles to steady it as it drank.  It offered her the second half of the cup. Lauren sniffed it. It didn’t smell like anything, then dipped a careful finger into it.  The liquid was cold and clear and not very viscous.

 

She carefully tasted it.  “It’s water!”

 

He started laughing at her again.

 

Lauren blushed,  “What? You didn’t know about the raw meat.”

 

He stopped laughing.  Then he turned aways and touched the wall to open a drawer and remove a damp cloth.  He carefully wiped his mandibles and teeth, then dropped the cloth into another drawer.  When he noticed Lauren watching him, be took out another one and offered it to her. 

 

It was awkward and it tasted weird, but she honestly felt better without morning breath.

 

“Can I have some clothes, too?”

 

He snorted and walked back to the desk, in front of a window, looking out on a rainforest. 

 

“Please?  It’s kind of cold in here.”

 

He did something on the desk and cargo doors opened.  Warm air rushed in and a number of insects died in a crackle reminiscent of a bug zapper as they tried to fly into the room.  Lauren stared at the doors.

 

“There’s some sort of a force field, right?  I mean, I can’t leave, can I?”

 

Again it was her words strung together, “You...can… leave.”

 

Lauren hurried down the ramp, but stopped before she got to the end.  She was standing on a spaceship, surrounded on all sides by jungle. She had no clothes, not shoes, no food and no idea where she was.  She sat down on the floor. Here she had shelter and water, but no food and no idea how long the creature’s hospitality would last. Out there…. Was that even still Earth?  Other jungle planets seemed ridiculous, but was it any worse than the idea that she had been abducted by aliens.

 

Alien.  She could only see the one.  She shivered, not sure how she knew he was standing behind her, but she did.  “What happens if I stay?” There wasn’t an answer. She didn’t know if she was expecting one or not.  

 

“I don’t know where I am,” Lauren continued.  “Humans… look, we aren’t the strongest or the fastest.  We don’t have sharp teeth or claws or warm fur. We only survived as a species by traveling in packs and being able to out think the competition.  We are a tool using species. I have no tools, not even shoes. I have no idea where I am. I have not collective knowledge about the dangers here.  I have no other people to help me survive. If I step out those door, I’m going to get lost in the rainforest, walk in circles until I can’t any more, then die from exposure.

 

“I don’t know why you brought me here, but you can’t feed or cloth me.   Am I here as a handy source of protein? As a pet? If I stay, then what?  I starve to death here? And we both know I can’t exactly go home to my job.  How would I explain any of that?

 

“I don’t know what to do.”

 

She thought for another moment.  “And I really need to pee, but if I step off this ship and you close the doors, I might as well bash my head in with a rock and I don’t want to die.”

 

He nudged her back with his knee, when she looked up, he was wearing the mask thing. He nodded back into the ship.  She followed him. He led her over to a corner and touched the wall, a door opened and inside was a tiny room, maybe the size of a closet, with some sort of plant growing on the floor.

 

The creature walked in, and removed what was basically a jock strap.  Lauren turned her head. He grabbed her by the throat and turned her head back.  Pointing at what looked like ken doll anatomy, he squatted and defecated. It didn’t look human at all.   More like a bird emptying its cloaca. The plants caught his waste like a venus flytrap eating a bug, curling around it and pulling it to the floor.  When he was finished, he stood, stepped aside and gestured for her to go into the room.

 

“Uh…. my body doesn’t work like that.  What if I wreck your … um… restroom?”

 

He laughed again and pushed her inside.  The floor felt weird as the plants tried to grab her toes.  Not a problem for him, he was wearing boots. Lauren looked at him watching her.  She turned away from him and squatted to relieve herself. He walked away. She wished for toilet paper.

 

She ended up back sitting by the open cargo doors, at least it was a little warmer there.  It was sheer luck that she happened to be watching the right part of the trees when the monsters burst out of them.  They looked like some weird cat/dog/cthulhu/full sized hog hybrid. She scrambled back as they rushed toward the ship.  They stopped when they saw her and slowed. Growling they crept towards her, clearly waiting for her to bolt. She just kept backing up and managed to get herself behind the big ass alien.

 

He snorted.  “Pet.”

 

Lauren froze, “Me or them?”

 

He didn’t answer her, but he clicked and chirped at the critters and they relaxed, watching her with more curiosity and less ferocity.  The big guy suddenly grabbed her hand and hauled it over towards the creatures’ faces. He pulled hard enough to knock her off her feet and make her stumble to keep up with her hand.  The creatures sniffed it, the alien let go of her wrist to scratch them underneath the tendrils coming from the back of their skulls. After a moment, he grabbed her wrist again and thrust her fingers into the …  she didn’t even know what to call them. They looked like dreadlocks but felt like leather, or like snakes, without the movement. The animal closed its eyes most of the way and purred a deep rumbling purr. The other one came to knock its friend out of the way so that it could get scritches too.  The first one shoved the second and a brief scuffle broke out. That would have been fine but they crashed into Lauren and she got a bit trampled before she got out of the way.

 

Since she wasn’t wearing in clothes, her belly and thighs got clawed up enough to welt and bleed.  She hissed softly in pain and once again put the big guy between her and the critters. They snuffed and circled around him to get to her.  Lauren kept backing up, her arms now wrapped tightly around her belly.

 

The big guy snapped something at the critters and the immediately sat.  They were still staring at her, but they weren’t advancing any more. After a moment, he turned on her and pulled Lauren’s arms away from her.    He snarled at the cuts on her, then reached out and ran his palm over her belly, making her wince. He started to growl.

 

Lauren took a deep breath.  “I’m Lauren, by the way.” She held out her hand.  He looked down at it, then back up to her face. “Uh… that’s my name.  Lauren. Do you have a name?”

 

He snarled.  Lauren looked at the floor.   “Or not.”

 

A big, clawed hand grabbed her throat and tipped her face up to look at him.  Then he trilled, and waited.

 

“Is that your name?”

 

He nodded.

 

“Um… I don’t think I can say that.”  Lauren thought for a moment. “Is that why you record my voice?  I bet your mouth can’t make the sounds for my language either. Would if be OK if you have a human name?”

 

He seemed to think about that.  When he replied, it wasn’t in her voice.  “Hunter.”

 

“I can call you Hunter?”

 

Hunter nodded and walked over the to the desk.  The cargo door closed and the ship lurched, knocking Lauren on her ass.  The pets lay down and whimpered as the ship took off. After a moment, so did she.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was brought to you by Ban23 of Tumblr. Thanks for sponsoring me!

The ship flew and landed and it didn’t seem like it went very far, but by the time it landed and Hunter came to check on Lauren, she was a whimpering mess.  He stood over her for a moment, then pointed his bracer at her. Lauren closed her eyes and tensed.

 

Nothing happened.

 

She opened her eyes in time to see Hunter, helmet off, really close.  She squeaked as Hunter scooped her up and carried her over to something that looked like an oversized upright coffin.  Or maybe a small closet. “Is that a stasis pod?”

 

Hunter snorted.

 

“What happened?  My joints hurt. Was that really water or did you poison me?”

 

Hunter snarled.

 

“OK!  I was just asking.”

 

He lay her carefully on the floor in the whatever it was, then poked at his gauntlet some more.  Finally a highly synthesized voice said, “Aerobullosis.”  He looked at her expectantly.

 

“I don’t know what that is.”

 

Hunter tried again, “Decompression Sickness.”

 

Lauren tried to figure that one out.  It sounded familiar. “I have the bends?”

 

Hunter considered this, then nodded and closed the door.  Warm air rushed into the chamber and her ears popped. The room smelled like ozone.  Lauren felt exhausted. There was a very faint sound of air moving, but other than that, she couldn’t hear anything.  And she couldn’t see much from where she was laying on the floor. It was warm. It felt like it had been forever since she was actually warm.

 

However weird and scary this whole situation was, the combined effects of the warm, the pressure and the oxygen had Lauren asleep in only a few blinks.

 

\---

 

When she woke up, the door was open and there was a little stack of cloth next to her head.  There was a pair of coveralls, a sports bra and a pair of compression shorts. No shoes no socks, no food.  Lauren’s muscles no longer ached, but her stomach did. She got dressed and stood up and was promptly hit by a wave of vertigo.  She sat back down. One of the critters came over and sniffed her face. Lauren gently pushed him away before laying back down and curling into ball.  “Hunter?” There was a clicking in reply. “Please kill me quick rather than letting the … pets tear me apart.”

 

He laughed.

 

“Yeah, yeah.  I’m hilarious.  I’m also serious.  I don’t want to see it coming.  Just… a quick headshot like Dave, please don’t…. Play with me like you did the soldiers that were loading me on to the truck, OK?”

 

He came over and pointed his bracer at her again.  Lauren tried to just relax. It looked scary, it felt scary, but it could be either a weapon or a way of checking if she still had the bends.  “I know your face is different than mine, but I can’t even begin to try to learn how you read your expression when you are wearing that mask all the time.”  She thought some more, “Mind you, if I don’t get something to eat soon, I won’t be in much of a position to learn anything.”

 

Hunter nodded and turned and left her.  The critter headbutted her. Lauren scratched behind its tentacles.  Looking at hunter in his mask with his tentacles hanging down over his shoulders made her wonder if he was the inspiration for Cthulhu.  The dark harbinger of death from before the dawn of man seemed pretty on point.

 

The critter was purring.

 

“I hope that means you like this, not that you are getting ready to bite my head off.”  Hunter seemed to think this was funny. “I bet I can’t pronounce their names either.” Lauren thought some more, “I am going to love you and pet you and call you George.”

 

“George.”  It was a recording of her voice.  There wasn’t any inflection to interpret for context or understanding.

 

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Lauren tried to explain.  “There is this cartoon. A really old cartoon where….” she trailed off. “Honestly, I have no idea how to explain bugs bunny to a alien from outer space.”

 

Hunter came over and handed her something before sitting on the floor next to her.  He pushed George out of the way. Lauren looked at the thing, it was a weird brown plastic package labelled MRE - Lasagna.  She turned it over in her hands. “Where did you get this?”

 

He just snorted and took it back from her.  He sprouted a knife from his wrist and cut through the plastic for her.

 

Lauren dumped everything out.  There was a lot of stuff in that little package.  She pawed through it looking for anything that was immediately identifiable as food.  Peanut butter! She grabbed it and ripped it opened it and squeezed some directly into her mouth.  It was thick and sticky and a little oily but right now it tasted like heaven.

 

“ ‘ow ong av oo add ee?”

 

Hunter stiffened, then turned and brought her a bowl of water.

 

“ ‘ank oo.”  The water helped the peanut butter go down.  She tried again, “How long have you had me? Only, I had coffee and a piece of toast for breakfast the day you took me.  Then I wasn’t fed in interrogation. Then I woke up here and it feels like I haven’t eaten in a few days, but I can’t really tell how long I’ve I’ve been here.”

 

Hunter didn’t say anything, but he handed her a package labelled mango applesauce.

 

Lauren ripped open a corner of that packet and squeezed that into her mouth too.  As she was sucking the sauce out of the foil, she saw the spoon. “Oops. Well, manners are for people who aren’t starving, right?”

 

He growled a bit at that.  Lauren stopped talking. She needed to concentrate on reading the directions anyway.  The was a bag that you added water to that was supposed to heat the lasagna. She carefully followed the directions on that in between shovelling spoonfuls of apple sauce into her mouth.  While it was heating she ate something that was allegedly pound cake. Now that the first mad dash to get food in as fast as possible was over, she could objectively say the texture wasn’t that great, but it was sweet and more solid than the peanut butter or the apple sauce and it felt good to actually be chewing something.  That was weird. She wouldn’t ever have considered that merely being solid food could be this appealing.

 

She finished the water and tried to decide if she was brave enough to ask for more.  Hunter’s mask gave away nothing. She couldn’t tell how receptive he would be to her request.  Instead she used her index finger to sweep the last few drops into her mouth. She started reading the other packages.  The was one for french vanilla cappuccino, one for lemonade, but they both needed water and she was out. She set them aside for later.  There was also tabasco sauce, gum, matches, and the smallest package of TP she had ever seen. She tucked it into her bra anyway. She had the feeling it was going to be like gold.

 

Hunter picked out the packets of drink crystals and looked at them.

 

“I need to add water to those.  I’ll save them for later. I bet I’m going to need the …” she trailed off as realization set in. “Fuck.”  It came out as a whisper and Lauren felt like she was going to cry. “I should have rationed that better. I could have saved the lasagna for for later.  For next time I’m this hungry.” She took a deep breath and tried to get her emotions under control. “Anyway. I can eat them dry later later when I need the sugar.”

 

Hunter brought her another bowl of water and she ate the lasagna in silence.  She still had the drink crystals and a tin foil package that claimed it contained bread.  They went into the cargo pocket of the coverall. She licked out the packages from both the lasagna and the applesauce not because it was delicious, but so she wouldn’t waste any of it.  “What do I do with all the packaging?”

 

Hunter picked it up and fed it into a garbage shoot.  The he turned and pulled the bread out of her pocket.

 

“No!  Stop! Please!  I’m saving that for later.”

 

Lauren was sure he was looking at her behind the mask.  She closed her eyes and looked away, unable to meet the vacant gaze of the eye markers.  She felt him move away. She turned around, not wanting to see him throwing away the last food she might ever see.  George nudged her face. Lauren went back to scratching him. He flopped down and lay his head in her lap. The other one came over.  She tried to scratch them both.

 

“You can be… Fred. No!  That’s unlucky. You can be Jeff.  Not that I can tell you apart yet, but maybe at some point.”  Looking between the two, they were both mud coloured, but George was more grey and Jeff was more brown.  It was subtle, but it was there.

 

Hunter stepped in front of her and handed her another MRE and the bread package.  Lauren took it and looked up at him, “Thank you.” She tucked them both into her pocket for later.  

 

Hunter grumbled at that but went back to his desk.  Lauren stood up and followed. It was a desk covered in red lights against a black wall.  Everything in here dark grey and was badly lit, but this wall was BLACK. It sucked at her eyes as she tried to see anything on it, any little scratch or flaw.  His hands hovered over the surface, not actually touching anything. They moved with purpose, even if Lauren couldn’t see what that purpose was.

 

He was sitting in the only chair, so Lauren ended up sitting on the floor near him.  He looked down at her and growled. Then he chirped and trilled and pointed to the ledge where he has sat her early.  Lauren went along with the unspoken command. Eventually, he opened the cargo doors again. Then he came over and handed Lauren her boots and socks.  Actually hers, he must have taken off her before she first woke up on the ship.

 

Once she had her shoes on, he pointed out at the forest outside and said, “Go!”  

 

Lauren stared at him in shock.  It was a different forest than last time, but still.  She opened her mouth to object and he roared at her, “GO!”

 

She turned and slinked off the cargo ramp.  She looked around, trying to get her bearings.  Trees? Check. Unbroken understory showing no signs of animal life?  Check. She closed her eyes and listened. She could hear running water off to her right.  She could also hear the cargo ramp closing. Her eyes snapped open to see the door close and the ship shimmer before going invisible.  She walked forward with her arm out and was able to feel something. It tingled under her hand but was perfectly smooth and didn’t feel like metal.

 

She turned back to look at the forest and jumped when she realized George and Jeff were with her.  She looked at them. They looked at her. They weren’t growling or anything. OK. “C’mon, puppies, let’s go find water.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments please.


	3. Chapter 3

Lauren was now sure she was not on Earth.  She had no idea how long she had been here.  It felt like more than a day, but the sun had barely moved.  She hadn’t opened the second MRE, but she had eaten the bread and hesitantly used the water from the stream to make the beverages.  The caffeine in the sickly sweet cappuccino mix had kept her going for a while. George and Jeff came and went, while she found a place to hunker down.  She could hear something that sounded like birds, but she didn’t see anything alive besides her and the critters. Eventually, she scrambled up a tree to sleep.

 

When she woke the sun had moved a little, but it wasn’t dark yet.  It felt like she had slept all night. She went and drank a little more water from the stream, then lay on her belly on an out cropping and watched the clear water for signs of fish.  Jeff came and flopped down on her legs He was easily as heavy as she was and her legs started to get pins and needles by the time he was snoring. She wiggled her legs a bit and hre grumbled and rolled off of them.

 

Eventually, the minnows came back.  Lauren waited for the bigger fish.

 

That wasn’t a fish.  It was a spikey, six legged water lizard. “Definitely not earth then.”  She said it out loud and the lizard looked up at her. Lauren jerked back as it jumped from the water snapping at where her face had been. She sat a few feet away from the water, trembling slightly.  

 

After a moment, she got a long stick and poked at the water until the lizard bit the end of it, then she quickly pulled the stick up and bashed the lizard to death on the rock overhanging the stream.  She didn’t have a knife to clean it. She managed something disgusting with her fingers, then washed her hands and used the matches from the first MRE to start a small fire to cook the thing over. While she was doing this, George ate the bits she had discarded.

 

By the time she was sure it was cooked all the way through, some bits were rather more crispy than she would have liked.  She ate it anyway. The meat had a weird oily texture, it wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it meant she could save the ration pack for another day.  She ate as much as she could and fed the rest to George and Jeff. They were incredibly pleased that she was sharing with them. 

 

“I don’t know why.  I don’t have a way to keep the meat and leaving it around will just attract other animals.” The critters wiggled happily, with no sign of actual understanding.  Lauren climbed back into the tree to nap.

 

When she woke up, she went to the stream to get some more water.  She jumped again as George burst out into the clearing and spat a dying thing at her.  It had six legs, fur and a crown of spikes on its head like bearded dragon lizard. It was almost dead, but still twitching.  It was quite a bit bigger than the swimming lizard.

 

George was watching her expectantly.  She crushed the thing’s head with a rock.  This time, she looked around and found a sharp rock she could use to gut the beasty.  She started the fire sooner, so she could cook it under the coals. This was tasted much better.  George and Jeff seemed to agree.

 

It looked like she needed to plan to be here for a while.  If the day was this long, the night would be too. Time to find or build a shelter.  She used the bag from mixing the lemon aid to carry water from the stream and put out the fire. She still had most of the matches left.  Then she started walking along the stream, looking for a cave or a tree with space under its roots. Some place she could hide for however long the night lasted.  There was no way to know how long she had walked, but she eventually found where a tree had fallen over. There was a hollow underneath it. It looked natural, Lauren knew enough to look for signs that something had dug it out.  She filled her water bag, and wiggled into the space as the sun finally set. 

 

After a moment the critters joined her.  Lauren was happy to have them. The temperature dropped fast.  There were three tiny moons. They didn’t give much light, but she had never seen that many stars.  She slept and woke and ate the apple sauce out of the second MRE. She sipped the water and left her shelter to have a pee.  She almost couldn’t find it again. After that, she rationed the water too. She sat there in the dark waiting for the sun to come up.

 

George and Jeff would wander off and eventually come back.  She gave them scratches and pets when they came back, whispering in the darkness that they were good boys.  There was still no animal noise. Even the distant bird song had stopped. There also weren’t any biting insects, so that was a blessing.

 

The boys were gone when the thing came by.  It was huge and it sniffed around her hiding hole.  Giant claws scrapped over the log and Lauren huddled with her back grinding into the dirt, both hands over her mouth so that she wouldn’t scream.  Screaming wouldn’t help, there wasn’t anyone to come and rescue her.

 

Eventually it moved on.  It took a long time for her to relax.  When she could, she used a match to find the peanut butter tube and she ate that.  The critters weren’t back yet. She hoped they were ok. Eventually sheer boredom and the crushing blackness lulled her back to sleep.

 

She woke suddenly as something grabbed her jumpsuit and hauled her out of the hole.  Now she did scream; she screamed and flailed and fought, swinging at her unseen capturer, struggling for all she was worth.   It dropped her for a moment, but before she could get away, it picked her back up with a better grip around her body and a hand covering her mouth.  The shock of that made her freeze. When she heard Hunter’s voice whisper, “Shhhh,” she relaxed.

 

He snorted in disgust as he set her on her feet.

 

“I lost George and Jeff,” she whispered.  “I’m sorry, they left and didn’t come back.”

 

“Shh!”  She heard the big thing crashing towards them.  She stepped behind Hunter and waited. He extended his blades and dove forward.  Lauren looked around in the dark, trying to find her hidey hole. She could hear the big thing screaming.  She froze. Hunter had taken on ten armed guards and he won. The thing didn’t have a chance. Eventually, the thing went quiet and she heard the wet sound of Hunter cutting meat.

 

“Come.”

 

She turned toward the sound of his voice.  “I can’t see.” He grabbed her hand and lead her into the darkness.  She stumbled over the uneven ground, trying to keep up. Suddenly, she was tossed over his shoulder, fireman’s style and Hunter just kept moving. Looking down at his ass, she saw he was dragging something dead.  She prayed it wasn’t one of the critters.

 

He dropped her at the base of the ramp up to the ship.  The dead thing he was dragging was a three foot long leg bone looking for all the world like a scaly drumstick.  “Was that the thing that tried to get me out from under the tree?”

 

Now Hunter turned on her, his tendril spinning out behind him, his blades coming out.  Lauren’s eyes went wide and she started to scramble away from him. She fell on her ass as she backed up into Jeff, who promptly nuzzled her face and started to purr.  Hunter clicked at him and the critter backed away from her. 

 

Hunter knelt at her feet, and took off her boots.  He carried them and the giant drumstick onto the ship.  Lauren scrambled up to follow. This place was scary enough that she didn’t want to get left behind.  Hunter, her boots and the leg disappeared through a door she hadn’t known was there.

 

He was back in an instant.  Hunter knocked Lauren on her ass and pulled off her socks, the riffled through her pockets and came up with the last food item she had left.  The entree from her. He looked at it, then made a point of taking off his mask to snarl at her with his mandibles flared. Lauren leaned away from him.  Then she got pissed off and kicked him in the chest.

 

Hunter froze and looked at her in what could have been shock.

 

“I was there for a long time and I got hungry!”

 

He narrowed his eyes at her.  The he stood up and stormed away taking the last of her food with him.  Lauren got up and followed him.

 

He was using the chem heater to warm up the food.

 

“Wait… are you mad that I ate the food or mad that I didn’t eat all of it?”

 

Hunter ignored the first part of the sentence, but snarled at her for the second.

 

“I didn’t know how long I was going to be there.  I was saving it. There isn’t exactly a supermarket where I can go pick up a loaf of bread and a carton of eggs!”

 

Hunter set down the food pack and grabbed her hand.  He led her through the door to the pantry. There were a number of hanging carcusses and a whole pallet full of MRE’s.  There was some blood splatter on the pallet wrapping around the MRE’s. George and Jeff had followed in and were sniffing some of the hanging meat.  Lauren turned to look and realized one of the bodies hanging from the meat hooks looked vaguely human.

 

She walked slowly towards it.  Hunter grabbed her by the back of the jumper and dragged her out of the room, dumping her back on the floor and throwing a MRE at her so that it hit her in the chest.  She stared up at him from the floor as he finished fussing with the food she had brought back with her.

 

“Why am I here?”  She was afraid to ask, but she needed to know.  Hunter handed her a bowl of water and a heated pack of meatball marinara.  “Am I going to end up in the pantry?”

 

He just snorted and started slicing meat, presumably for himself.

 

“Why bother feeding me if I’m going to be dinner?  Better to just kill me off and eat the ration packs yourself.”

 

Hunter snorted and sat down next to her.  It was weird watching him hold the bowl to his face and use his mandibles to feed the meat strips into his mouth.  Like watching one of those close up videos of a dragonfly eating. When he noticed she was just sitting there watching him, he tapped his wrist and chittered.  The electronic voice said, “Eat.”

 

Lauren looked at the food pack.  “Why take me? Why would you care if I end up being killed off by the men in black?  Why leave me out there? How long was I there for? It felt like a long time. Was it only a few hours?  Why does it matter that I didn’t eat all my food?” She stopped for a moment before she asked the hard question, “Are you just fattening me up for the slaughter?”

 

Hunter laughed.

 

Lauren set her food on the floor.  Jeff came over and sniffed at it. Hunter snarled and the critter backed off.

  
  


“Eat.”

 

“I’ve never seen you feed them.”

 

“Pets hunt.”

 

“Is that why you dumped me back there?  To see if I could hunt?”

 

Hunter ignored her and went back to eating his meat.  Lauren stood up and stepped away from him. He idly grabbed her ankle and pulled.  She didn’t fall on her face but she ended up doing a frantic hopping dance to keep her balance.

 

“Let go!”

 

“Eat!”

 

Lauren glared at him.  Hunter jerked her ankle far enough that she did land on her ass.  He laughed. Lauren noticed that his eyes closed when he laughed. She punched him in the throat.  Or at least tried to. He caught her fist before it actually made contact.

 

His pupils went wide.  He dropped his bowl of meat and pushed her onto her back, one hand on her throat, the other opening her coveralls.  The brief moment of freeze wore off as his hand got to her waist band.

 

She screamed and flailed and punched him.   It didn’t make any difference. Then she pulled his tendrils with one hand and clawed his face with the other.

 

Hunter howled and let go enough for her to squirm away and bolt for the still open cargo bay doors.

 

He brought her down with a flying tackle.  She cracked her chin on the floor and saw stars.  When he flipped her over onto her back, Lauren tasted blood.  Hunter’s mandibles flared and clamped around her throat, the points pinching tight enough to draw blood as his tongue lapped at her throat.  Lauren let herself go limp and waited for him to rip out her throat.

 

He was still trying to get her out of her clothes, and it took him a moment to realize she wasn’t fighting any more.  When he did he sat up and looked at her. Lauren closed her eyes and let the tears run down the sides of her face. Hunter was roaring at her.  Her eyes snapped open when he slapped her.

 

And that was weird.  He was strong enough to snap her neck.  He pulled the slap so it wasn’t hard enough to do much more than sting for a moment.  

 

He was sitting back on his heels, staring at her.

 

Lauren let her head fall back to the floor with a thunk.  She was looking at the ceiling when she said, “Yeah, I get it.  You are bigger than me. Strong than me. You can end my pathetic life anytime you want.  So stop playing with your food and get it over with!”

 

Hunter stood up and left her there.  Grumbling, he picked up his bowl and headed over to the desk, where he sat down with a huff.

 

Lauren lay on the deck for a moment, then zipped up her coveralls and went to sit at the end of the ramp.  She realized she was still bleeding from her chin, so she pressed on the cut trying to get the bleeding to stop.  He neck was bleeding a little too. The top of her coveralls was soaked like someone had cut her throat.

 

“Fuck.”  She tried to feel where the blood was coming from, then just gave up.  “Of all the things I thought I would die of in your care, Hunter, an infected cut wasn’t the one I would have guessed.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Author In Exile for taking the time to comment! And thanks BAN for sponsoring this work.
> 
> How I see predator peen:  
> https://youtu.be/3ED_exG3qLk
> 
> (Aligator)


	4. Chapter 4

Lauren was sitting on the end of the ramp.  She wasn’t quite prepared to storm off into the dark forest.  She couldn’t see. She knew there were large carnivores out there and she would be leaving a blood trail.  So she sat, on the ramp, blood running down her neck, feeling sorry for herself.

 

Something skittered across the floor and crash to a stop against her back.  She turn to grab it, thinking it was the packaged meatballs and was surprised to see a black metal box.  She frowned at it and looked up to see Hunter watching her from the top of the ramp.

 

“Medicine.”  It wasn’t the synthesized voice.  This was sampled from an actual english speaker.  Not someone who spoke english as first language, but it was understandable. 

 

Lauren hauled the box into her lab, but she couldn’t even figure out how to open it.  She tried for a few moments, then got frustrated and set it down next to her hip.

 

“MEDICINE!” same voice, but louder this time.

 

“I don’t know how!”

 

Hunter grabbed her and hauled her back into the ship. He laid her out flat and put his knee on her chest so she couldn’t escape. 

 

“You are being ridiculous. I know you understand me. You managed to find the medical name for the bends when I had that. Just tell me to hold- Holy Mary Mother of God!”

 

Whatever Hunter was dabbing on her cut hurt like a son of a bitch.  And he laughed when he made her curse. Once he got her cleaned up, he sat her up and handed her the no longer completely hot food. She looked at it without taking it. 

 

Hunter opened the package, picked up the spoon and proceeded to carefully spoon horrible meatballs into Lauren’s mouth as though she were a toddler instead of an adult woman.  The realization that she was acting like a toddler stung enough that she snatched the spoon from his fingers and started feeding herself.

 

Hunter tensed, but let her have the spoon. He watched he eat. When she was done, he gathered up the packaging and headed to the garbage shoot.   He walked back and stood too close to her.

 

“Undress.”

 

“What?”

 

“Undress.  Bloody.”

 

Lauren considered this, “will I get them back later?”

 

Hunter lost patience then.  He darted forward and stripped her out of her coveralls as easily as she would peel a banana. 

 

“Hey!  I like wearing clothes!”

 

Apparently she was still hilarious. Hunter was laughing like this was the best joke. 

 

“That’s a no on getting it back, isn’t it?”

 

He was just watching.

 

With his mask off.

 

After she had complained about not being able to see his face.

 

Huh.

 

Well, it was worth a try.

 

“Hunter?  Get me new clothes.”

 

And he did.

 

But as she reached for the new coveralls, he pulled it away and wiggled his mandible as her.

 

“Fine, asshole.  I will just go sit in the corner and-”  as she stood up to leave he growled and boxed her in with his arms.  Not actually grabbing her for once, but not letting her leave either.

 

He wiggled his mandibles at her.

 

“O...kay…  I take it that means something and I just don’t understand what.”

 

Moving very slowly, he leaned in and sniffed her neck, then began to gently stroke it with his mandibles.

 

“Hey, you just got me to stop bleeding from the last time you did that.”

 

Hunter froze for a moment, but didn’t move away.  When Lauren didn’t either, he started again. All four, each ending in a fang, gently stroking over her throat.  His eyes merely inches from hers. Watching her carefully. It was… almost sensual. Like kissing for a species with no lips.   And that was a train of thought that she wasn’t prepared to follow.

 

“Stop.”

 

He did, leaning back to watch her with his pupils wide.  She stared at him, not sure what to do about this. Then she realized she had been holding eye contact too long, so she looked at the floor.  Hunter dropped the new coverall and stepped back. He paced for a moment, then darted forward toward her, then stopped. He stood there watching her for a long while.  Then he opened the door to the oxygen room. “Lauren.”

 

She look up.  He indicated the room.  She walked in, carrying her overalls.  He closed the door. The he did something new.  When there had been a window, or at least part of the door that was see through, he turned that off.  It meant the room was pitch black and she could see out to see what was going on out in the main part of the ship.  Her ears popped and she concentrated on not panicking as the pressure increased making it feel like the walls were closing in.  She tried knocking on the door. Then banging on it. Then she tried running her hands over the walls looking for a latch or a way to turn on some lights.  After that, she checked the other walls. Twice, incase she missed something the first time.

 

Time was alway hard to pin down, but it didn’t seem that long before he opened the door.  He was back wearing his mask. The cargo doors were closed. George and Jeff were nowhere to be seen.  

 

“What was that all about?”  The ship wasn’t exactly well lit, but out here she could seen enough to get dressed.  This jumpsuit was bigger than the last one. Only a little bigger around, but she had to roll up the sleeves and legs.  There was a little hole just above her waist. Like a cigarette burn.

 

And a matching one on the other side.

 

Lauren dug deep into her years of experience cleaning up blood spatter to put that one out of her mind.  “Are we flying again? Is that why I needed to go into the oxygen room?”

 

Hunter didn’t reply.

 

“I need to water your plants.”

 

\----

 

Lauren didn’t understand how the temperature control worked.  It got hot enough to make her sweat while Hunter did some alien version of tai chi.  But as soon as he was done, it dropped and left her shivering in her now damp coveralls.

 

He had shown her how the room with the living floor was also a shower.  He went first after his work out.That was nice. The water was warm. But the plants would wrap tightly around her toes if she stood still too long in there.  She wanted a toothbrush. The gum in the MRE’s was better than nothing, but it wasn’t the same. Hell, she wanted deodorant, shampoo and a razor while she was wishing for things.

 

And a towel.

 

Hunter was watching her.

 

She didn’t plan this well.  It was fine for him, the water ran right off his alligator hide like water off a ducks arse.  Her hair was wet and all the little hairs on her body were holding the water and now she was cold and wet.  Less smelly, but still cold and wet and naked.

 

Lauren sneezed.

 

Hunter jumped and turned to watch her through the mask.  Then he played back the sound of her sneeze.

 

“Yeah.  I’m cold and wet and I hate it, but a least I don’t stink quite as badly.”

 

Suddenly he was moving.  He walked aggressively towards Lauren so that she walked backwards until he had her pinned against a wall.  There was the sound of something mechanical going on, but she couldn’t see what. He ran his hands over her skin, wiping off the beads of water and flicking them onto the floor.  Then he carded his hands through her hair. Hunter wasn’t particularly interested in touching her breasts, but he was purring as he stroked her hair and her throat again.

 

“You always go for the jugular?”

 

He stopped to remove his mask and consider this.  Then he bent forward and pressed his teeth to her shoulder, stroking his mandibles over that.

 

“What does it mean when you do that?”

 

He didn’t reply other than to purr a little louder.

 

“Dude, are you kissing me right now?”

 

“Kissing?”

 

Lauren looked at him.  “Right! No lips, no kissing.”

 

“What is kissing?”

 

“It’s how humans show affection.”

 

“Show me ooman affection.”

 

Lauren sighed and looked at him.  He was more than two feet taller than she was.  She reached up and wrapped her right fist around his bottom right mandible and pulled him down so that she could reach.  He went along with that, purring all the way. He was less pleased when she used it to try to turn his head to the side, snarling and pulling away from her.  Lauren held her hands up near her shoulders, her palms pointed at him.

 

“Not trying to upset you.  You just don’t have lips so I was going to kiss your cheek instead.”

 

He growled softly as he lowered his head down to her level and turned his face slightly away from her.  She reached up and put her hand on his other cheek to steady herself and carefully kissed him. A real kiss not just a quick peck, which had her wondering why she did that.  Then she hurriedly dropped her hand and tried to step back only to find the wall about an inch behind her.

 

“Hmmm.”

 

“The point is… My question is, that thing that you do when you basically scrape your teeth over me, is that affection or are you just thinking about biting me?”

 

“Biting is affection.”

 

Now she slammed her hands against his chest and tried (but failed) to push him away.  “Biting is not affection! No biting! It hurts!”

 

“Hmmm.”

 

“Is that what you were doing?  When you knocked me to the floor and cut up my chin and my throat?”

 

“Yes.   Affection.”

 

“No!  Scary!”

 

Hunter shrugged, dismissively.

 

Lauren ran her hands over her face.  “Hunter. How do you show affection without killing a girl?  ‘Hey, I really like you, I’m going to rip out your throat’ doesn’t seem like a  sustainable way to show and interest.” She thought about that some more. “Not that I think you are interested.  I mean, obviously. I’m not the same species or anything.”

 

“Not rip your throat out.  Yautja females bigger.”

 

“Yautja? Is that the name of your species.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I’m not surprised that your females are bigger than me.  I mean, you are huge. It only makes sense.”

 

“Yautja females bigger than me.”

 

“Whoa!  Really?”

 

Hunter nodded then bent and pressed his mouth to her shoulder again.

 

“That is still really scary.  I bet it doesn’t bother yautja because they are bigger and stronger and have thicker skin, but -”

 

“Not hurt.  Careful.”

 

“Yeah.  OK. But stop it anyway.”

 

Hunter growled and stomped off.  When he moved away, Lauren could see that a big chunk of floor had fallen away.  There was at least a fourteen foot area that had dropped, it got smaller as you walked down the three steps that surrounded and ten foot lower part.  Hunter just jumped over the steps, then turned and opened a drawer in one and pulled out a bundle of hides. He lay some down on the floor, then pulled a shorter haired one over his body as he lay down on top of the other furs.

 

“Sleep.”

 

“That’s where you sleep?”

 

He beckoned her to come closer.

 

Lauren didn’t move.  “Hunter? How does a Yautja female say that she doesn’t want affection?”

 

He shrugged.  Lauren wondered about that.  Was he copying her? “Kill male.”

 

Lauren blinked.  “What? So… If I can’t kill you, then you will keep touching me whether I want you to or not?”

 

The steady background of trills, clicks and purring stopped.  Hunter climbed out of the pit and stalked towards her. Lauren started to siddle away.  

 

“Stop!  Ooman affection!”

 

She froze.  Hunter caught her by the throat, then reconsidered and cupped her chin instead.  He resolutely folded his mandibles over his inner teeth, then pressed them, still closed, to her cheek and made a wet sound with his tongue.

 

“Kissing.”

 

“Uh.  Sure. No more affection tonight, OK?”

 

Hunter nodded, then scooped her up like she was a football and carried her to bed.

 

Lauren wasn’t sure how she ended up being the big spoon, but from how loudly Hunter was purring, he was pleased with that arrangement.

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

Lauren wasn’t sure what the hell was going on with Hunter.  She had no idea where they were, where they were going, or what was going on.  So far she was trying to stay out of the way. She concentrated on training the critters and not being under foot.  The already had learned sit and lay down.  There wasn't enough room for fetch.  Currently, Jeff was asleep dreaming about chasing rabbits. Or something that would make his legs twitch anyway. George was laying belly up on the floor while Lauren scratched under his chin.  Hunter was staring at her.

 

“What?”

 

He stomped over and slapped her.

 

Lauren scrambled back and away from him. George sat up and was watching intently.  “What was that for? I wasn’t doing anything to you!”

 

He kept advancing on her until she was backed against the wall.  Lauren cowered away from him as his mandibles flared. As soon as they touched her skin, she shrieked and dove to the side to get away.  “Why are you doing this?”

 

“Affection.”

 

“What?  If you tell me you hit me because you like me, I will….” she trailed off.  He had perked right up at that. “Hunter. I don’t want you to hit me. Or hurt me.  That isn’t affection as humans understand it. It is just being mean.”

 

“Lauren hit me.”

 

“I did not!” she was absolutely indignant.  Then she considered this. “You….want… me to hit you?”

 

Hunter nodded.  “Affection.”

 

Lauren tried to think fast.  “Why do you want my affection?”

 

He watched her and started to purr.

 

“I hate to point this out, but different species.”

 

The purring got louder.

 

“Um…. I’ve seen you naked.  We don’t have compatible body parts.”

 

Hunter didn’t say anything.

 

Tears in her eyes, Lauren said, “I want to go back to earth!”

 

He stopped and thought about that.  “No.”

 

“You want to keep me here to torture and rape.”  It came out flat, as part of her brain pictured what that could look like and started to shut down.

 

Hunter growled and backed away.  “No.” Then in the longest sentence she had ever heard from him, “I would not dishonour my clan like that.  I am not a bad blood.”

 

“Abducting a human is not dishonourable, but raping one is? I don’t need to ask about the torture part, I saw what you did to the men on the base.”

 

Hunter shrugged and sat down on the floor.  “Keeping pets is not dishonourable.”

 

Lauren wasn’t so sure about that.  “Is that what I am? I’ve never seen you slap the critters. Or try to bite them.”

 

“Kissing.”

 

“I don’t want to kiss someone who hurts me!”

 

Hunter snorted and walked over to his desk.  One of the walls lit up. It played the Bugs Bunny clip about George.  Then it cut to porn. Lauren gasped and looked away as the woman was slapped and spanked and spat on then pushed face down into the mattress and -

 

“Stop!  That’s horrible!  That isn’t how it’s supposed-”

 

The videos stopped.  It switched to a porn website.  “Show me.”

 

Lauren sighed, “There are seven billion people on Earth.  There are going to be people who enjoy violent sex. That isn’t what I want.”

 

“Show me.”

 

Lauren didn’t have a keyboard but found she could navigate by pointing at things, the way she would click on it with a mouse.  She tried a couple of categories, but even in the prefered by women section she didn’t find anything she liked the description of.  “The thing is, any of these videos are only a few minutes long. They don’t show the discussion before or what happens after. It’s a fantasy.  You can’t base any relationship on a ten minute porn clip. Or even a million ten minute porn clips. It isn’t real. Two people carefully cuddling and laughing together doesn’t make a good quick wank video.”  She searched ‘compilation.’ “See? Look at how many of these aren’t even ten minutes. They are collections of one minute videos.” Then she search solo, “And look at how many women would rather stay home alone with a toy than do the other, violent stuff.”

 

That one seemed to get through to him.

 

He brought up a video of a pack of Yautja.  The small ones where offering gifts to the large one.  Hunter pointed to the biggest Yautja, “Female.” 

 

She selected the gifts from one of the smaller Yautja, then punched him.  They fought hard with knives as the others watched. Eventually the smaller one forced the female to the ground and bit, hard, into her neck with his mandibles, forcing her to stop fighting.  Then with his teeth still in her throat, he sprouted a cock and started violently fucking her as the other males cheered.

 

Lauren felt sick.  “You know you will severely injure or kill me if you tried that, right?”

 

Hunter nodded, “Gentle.”

 

“Slapping me didn’t feel gentle.”

 

Hunter grabbed the front of her jumpsuit and hauled her in close to him.  Then he caressed her cheek. “Gentle.” He leaned in and gave her his version of a kiss.  “Not biting.”

 

She looked away.  

 

He brought up what looked like security footage of her fighting, trying to get away from him.  He purred. She could see some similarities. It took a moment for what he meant to sink in.

 

“I was scared!  You thought I was flirting with you?”

 

Hunter growled.

 

Lauren decided to change tactics.  “They gave her presents.”

 

Hunter plucked at her jumpsuit, then patted the pocket where she kept a back up MRE.

 

“Oh.”  Lauren started to tremble.  “She could make them stop.”

 

He let go of her and stepped back.

 

Lauren tried again.  “I don’t understand. I don’t know what to expect.  But I don’t want to be hurt or killed. Even looking for someone of my own species…. I want someone I can talk to.”

 

“George doesn’t talk.”

 

“George doesn’t want anything from me.”

 

He growled, then dropped into a crouch and head butted her hand.  It was very much like one of the critters demanding scritches. Lauren pulled her hand away.  Hunter grumbled a bit, then tried again. 

 

Lauren watched him and said, “You want me to touch you.  I want to go home. To my home.”

 

“Want talking.  Want to see me. Want food, clothes.”  Lauren felt horrified. Hunter kept talking, “Want care.  I give care. I want care.”

 

“There is a big difference between care and sex.”

 

Hunter watched her.  “Show me ooman affection.  Show you Yautja affection.”

 

“If Yautja affection involves slapping and hitting, I don’t want it.”

 

“I want it.  Want touch.”

 

Lauren hesitantly reached down and stroked his tendrils.  Hunter purred and clicked. Lauren slid down the wall and sat on the floor.  Hunter copied something else the critters did and lay his head in her lap, then he wrapped his arms around her waist.

 

\----

 

Lauren didn’t remember nodding off, but she woke up when Hunter climbed out of her lap.

 

“You know, if I hadn’t been dumped on a strange planet, I wouldn’t believe we were in space.  Who builds a spaceship without windows?” She said it idly, not really expecting anything, but wanting to lift the mood a little.  Hunter tapped something on his desk, the lights went down further, then the whole ceiling lit up with stars. Lauren gasped. “It beautiful.  Like one of those Hubble pictures.”

 

Hunter grunted.  Lauren didn’t feel the ship move but the sky did a slow roll to the right.  “Whoa! That’s amazing!” As they kept rolling, a planet came into view. There wasn’t very much water that she could see.  It was getting closer. “Are we going there?”

 

Hunter brought up a picture of something that looked like the worms from so many movies.  Tremors. Beetlejuice. Dune. 

 

“Why do I recognize that?”

 

Hunter just laughed. 

 

“Why are we here?”

 

He flared his mouth.  His voice synthesizer said, “Trophy.”

 

“You are you going to hunt that?”

 

Hunter nodded.

 

“What about me?”

 

Suddenly, he was paying closer attention to her than Lauren would have liked.

 

He stuffed her into the decompression room.

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

She wasn’t in there very long, but when the door opened, Hunter was gone.  Jeff was still there, George wasn’t. There was a stack of MRE’s and two serving boxes of Jeff food.  He was planning on being gone two sleeps then. Lauren tried poking at the desk. Nothing happened. She felt along the wall where she knew there were cabinets.  They wouldn’t open for her. She still had access to the room with the plants. They took any bodily waste she had, and greedily accepted at her used toilet paper.  She was so happy it was included in the ration packs.

 

It was weird peeing on the floor.  And even worse that all four of them, Hunter, George, Jeff and her, all used the same small plant lined room.

 

Through the highly scientific method of just pressing things until something happened, she managed to turn on the windows or whatever so that she could see the long grass covered hills through the walls of the ship.  She wondered how big the worm that Hunter was after actually was. The picture had been big, but there wasn’t anything for scale. Maybe she was just imagining huge because of the movies.

 

\----

 

Lauren was trying to remember how to yoga when she heard the voice.

 

“Hello?  Is anyone there?  This is a military channel.  You shouldn’t be transmitting here.”

 

She turned and ran over to the desk, there was an angry looking, older, military type glaring at her.  She didn’t know how that worked, so she hesitantly said, “Hello? This isn’t live, is it?”

 

“Yes.  Who are you?”

 

Lauren hesitated.  “This is going to sound ridiculous, but …  I’ve been abducted by aliens. Well, one alien.  Or at least a guy in hella convincing costume. Um…”

 

“How did you connect to this terminal?”

 

“I don’t know?  I was pushing buttons earlier but I don’t know how any of this works.”

 

“You are Lauren Stauffer.  You went missing from a base in New Mexico three weeks ago.”

 

“Whoa!  It doesn’t feel like three weeks!”

 

“Is the predator there with you?”

 

“Um… he’s out hunting.”

 

“Where are you?”

 

“OK, we are back into crazy town, but I don’t think I’m on Earth.”  He stared at her. “Yeah. I know. Light speed means I can’t be talking to you from off world, but I’m pretty sure he isn’t out hunting giant worms on Not Earth.”

 

“Can you tell us anything about what happened?”  the man was gesturing to someone off camera.

 

“Uh… I don’t know what happened.  I mean… I was debriefed at the site that I was working at.  Then while I was being escorted to a transport van, the soldiers moving me were killed and when I tried to escape, I was knock out and woke up on this ship.”

 

“Has he tried to have sex with you yet?”

 

Lauren just stared at him.

 

“We found they had sections of human DNA mixed in with theirs.  Abducting women would explain that.”

 

“No.”

 

“He may be waiting for you to be fertile or for stockholm syndrome to kick in or-”

 

“Dude!  Where did you take sex ed?  If I’ve been gone for three weeks, I’ve already been here and fertile.”  The implications of that kicked in. He may have food, but she doubted he had tampons. “And stockholm syndrome can happen in hours.  I’ve been here for weeks, and I’m not particularly sympathetic to him yet.”

 

“Can you get him to bring you back to Earth?”

 

“I have asked.  He has refused. I don’t know how to steal a spaceship.  I’m sorry, you know my name and I have no idea who you are.” 

 

“I’m Sean Keyes.  I’m part of Project Stargazer.  You are speaking to me via a hacked computer terminal in New Mexico.”

 

Mr Keyes wanted to know all about the spaceship, but was disappointed that she couldn’t describe the weapons systems, only the bathroom.  Lauren gritted her teeth and didn’t ask why he thought Hunter would show his hostage the weapons specs. He wasn’t as impressed by the septic systems as she was.

 

She was trying to describe having the bends when the call abruptly ended.  The lights went down and the bed opened up.

 

Lauren quickly ate some food and found a tooth wipe before settling in for the night.  Jeff flopped down next to her, even though he didn’t sleep in the bed when Hunter was there.  The full dark and ringing silence had her nodding off fairly quickly. 

 

She slept herself out.  It was still dark when she woke and fumbled her way to the bathroom.  The lights came up when she came out. From there it was eat breakfast and job around the circumference of the ship until she got dizzy and needed to sit.  She gave Jeff a really good scratch then fed him. She did some jumping jacks and had a shower. She lay on the floor and wished for the millionth time that she had a book or a ball or some sort of distraction.  She wondered if Hunter was going to come back or if she was going to be stuck here until she starved to death. Or until Jeff ate her.

 

The screen lit up again.

 

“Hello?” Sean called out.  “Lauren?”

 

She sat up, got up and walked over to the desk.  “This wasn’t me. I didn’t push any buttons today.”

 

“Is the Predator back?”

 

“No.  Just me.  And the critter.”

 

“What critter?”  There was muffled voices in the background.  “One of the hunting dogs?”

 

“Not exactly a dog, but something like that.  Listen, can you send me some music or a pdf book or something?  Like… email it to me? Or anything?”

 

“We aren’t making this connection.  I’m not sure how to arrange that.”

 

“Oh.”  She thought about how to say this.  “I’m really bored and lonely out here.”

 

“Because… Hunter is gone?”

 

Lauren shrugged.  “He barely talks to be when he is here.”

 

“He speaks english?”

 

“Sort of.  I don’t think his mouth can make the noises of human speech.  So I get the audio equivalent of a ransom note. All different voices with random words clipped out and strung together to get his point across.  I mean, the longer I’m here the better that is getting. But he isn’t exactly Chatty Cathy.”

 

Someone in the background shouted, “Chatty Cathy only said eleven things.”

 

Lauren blinked.  “I half way across the universe and I’m still getting mansplained.  What does that have to do with my point?”

 

“I’m just sayin’.” replied the voice.

 

Lauren rolled her eyes.  Then something occurred to her.  “What did you tell my mom happened to me?  Please tell me I didn’t just disappear on her.”

 

Sean took off his glasses with their clear plastic rims. “You have to understand-”

 

“Oh for fucks sake!  Kill me off in a car accident or an explosion at work or SOMETHING!  Give the poor woman some closure that I’m not coming back.”

 

“You want her to think you’re dead?”

 

“Better than thinking I’m missing and her spending the rest of her life trying to find me.”  The room went quiet and Lauren got out of the chain and moved away from the desk to cry. Jeff came over and bumped her face.  She stroked his mane and didn’t bother sobbing, but let the tears come anyway.

 

It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about her family.  It was just that until now, there wasn’t anything she could do about it.  Her boyfriend, Neil, he would get over it and get on with his life. Mom and Ron deserved some closure.  They needed to know something had happened and she wasn’t coming home.

 

“Lauren?  We can arrange a death certificate and a life insurance pay out,” Sean said, “but I need you to tell me what is going on.”

 

“I don’t know what is going on!  I can’t tell you about weapons because hostages don’t get to know that.  I don’t know how I’m even talking to you. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know anything that can help you.”

 

“Tell us about the critter.”

 

Lauren hauled herself back into the chair.  “He’s halfway between the size of a huge dog and a small bear.  He has lizard skin and the same leathery tendrils coming from his head as Hunter.”

 

They asked her about the critter behaviour.  About her time on what even planet Hunter had dumped her.  They wanted all kinds of details, which she didn’t have, about the critters bringing her dead things.  This had degenerated into a heated debate about whether the critters were feeding her or if Hunter had sent the dead thing.

 

Then the cargo doors opened and a very stinky Hunter stomped in dripping goo.  He waved at the screen and Project Stargazer disappeared. He was dragging something.  It was coated in bright orange slime, but Hunter was dripping glow in the dark green from a cut in his shoulder.

 

Lauren froze.

 

He ignored her, but headed for the waste room and turned on the shower.

 

“Are you ok?” she tentatively asked.

 

He wasn’t washing himself, he was scrubbing off the thing.  Lauren came over to see what it was and he threw it at her feet.  Being careful not to touch it, she leaned in for a closer look. It was a tooth.  A fang. Like the long tooth a snake might have, except one edge was serrated. It was as long as her leg from knee to toes and about as big around.

 

“Whoa!  That is … nasty looking.  I wouldn’t want to meet whatever has those teeth in a back alley.”  She looked up. Hunter was stripping under the water. His helmet crashed to the floor next.  The green stuff was running down his arm and he had some on his face too.

 

She was trying to figure out what it was, (some sort of plant sap maybe?) when he pushed past her and grabbed a tool and used it on the  green on his skin. The green went away. Hunter walked naked out of the shower and down the steps into bed. Then he came back up, grabbed the fang and took it into one of the rooms where Lauren wasn’t allowed to go.  After sealing the door, he walked towards the bed before detouring and grabbing Lauren.

 

“Hey!  Let go of me!”

 

Hunter ignored her.  He lay down, then pulled her down, then rolled over so that she was in the big spoon position.  Holding her arm around his body he started to purr. Lauren wasn’t exactly comfortable. His tendrils were in her face and spooned up behind him her face was in his lower back.  It would make more sense for her to be the little spoon.

 

In fucking position.

 

No, this was fine.

 

This way he was between her and the door.

 

“The cargo bay doors are still open.”

 

Hunter chittered.

 

The doors closed.

 

Lauren went very still for a moment.  “Your ship called earth somehow.”

 

“You want talk.  I get talk. I want sleep.”

 

She had so many questions running through her brain at that.  But what she said was, “Goodnight, Hunter.”

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

Lauren didn’t sleep.   Her mind was racing. She worried about her family.  About whether Sean would keep his word and take care of them.  She was, really, still unable to do anything about that. If he had been lying to her, she would never know.

 

And what was Hunter saying?  Had he arranged for her to talk to Earth?  Why would he even do that?

 

And where was George?  “Hunter, where is George?”

 

“Lost.”

 

Lauren’s heart stuttered.  “Lost as in missing or dead?”

 

“Lost.”

 

She rolled over and pressed her back to his.  She shouldn’t be this upset about a missing critter.

 

Hunter started to growl.  He flipped over and grabbed her arm and dragged her back into place behind him.  Lauren scrambled up and away. “I’m sad that George didn’t come home. You lost him and I don’t want to cuddle you right now!”

 

Hunter blinked.  He stood up, glared at Lauren then waved a hand. A hologram of the tooth he brought back came up.  Then an illustration of it being used at the end of a spear.

 

“I don’t care!  A spear is just a thing!  George was my friend.” She sat down with her back to the wall and hugged her knees and started to cry.  Maybe it was talking to Sean about her family. Maybe it was PMS. Either way, Lauren hung her head and cried.  Hunter stood over her, his head tilted to one side. He chittered and when she looked at him, he pointed at Jeff.

 

“Yeah.  I still have Jeff.  I have one friend where I had two.  Until you go hunting again and he is lost too.  Or until you get tired of me and decide I’m not worth going back for.”

 

Hunter knelt next to her and growled.

 

“Yeah.  You can be mad at me.  Go back to bed.”

 

He pulled her into his lap and held her tight when she squirmed to get away.  He cupped the back of her skull, then dragged his hand down her back.

 

Then he did it again.

 

On the third pass Lauren realized he was petting her.  Lauren batted his hand away. Hunter’s pupils blew.

 

“No!  You do not get to be horny!  I’m mad that George is gone!”

 

Hunter stood up abruptly, dumping her on the floor.  Then he stormed off the ship.

 

\----

 

Lauren had moved past angry grieving and had settled on nervous worrying by the time Hunter came back.  She was pacing. Jeff was following her and whining softly.

 

The cargo doors opened and Hunter came in carrying what was left of George.  He was missing half of his tendrils and his right front leg. Hunter dumped him on the floor.  Lauren gasped. Jeff started to growl. Hunter glared at Jeff who slunk off. Then he caught Lauren when she went towards George.  As he was pulling her away from the critter, George lifted his head and started to growl.

 

Lauren froze.  “He’s alive? You were going to just leave him here while he’s hurt?”

 

Hunter didn’t say anything, he just watched her.

 

Lauren took a deep breath.  “OK. He needs help. How do we stop the bleeding?  How do we keep the wounds from getting infected? What’s all the green stuff?”

 

Hunter drew a knife.  When he was sure she was watching, he cut his hand and bled green.

 

Lauren stared.  “Oh.” She had to process that.  Hunter had a lot of green on him when he first got back to the ship.  There was more now, but she could tell how much of it was George’s. “Do you need medical attention too?”

 

Hunter roared and her and turn away.  He went over to the wall and pulled out a box of stuff.  George got poked with two things, then his stump was sprayed with something else.  The something else fluffed up like spray insulation and coated the stump in a shiny film.

 

Without looking at her, Hunter asked, “Why?”  

 

It was a simple question.  But it wasn’t one Lauren was expecting.  She tried to think about how to explain it.  “Humans aren’t all warriors. Most of us have problems that mean we would never survive without help.  Glasses, asthma, arthritis. But if we dump people with arthritis, then we are killing off people who know our history.  People who can’t see well enough to hunt can contribute in other ways. We advanced because we take care of our geeks, and our small and weak.  I know people don’t remember that so much anymore. But we all start out as children who need protection. And there aren’t many women who could run down a caribou while nine months pregnant.  The countries that have the most happiness are the one where people take care of each other.”

 

Now he was still staring at her.

 

“And,” she continued, “You’ve had these boys longer than you’ve had me.  If you don’t take care of them, how can I trust you to take care of me? I am squishy and have a five second life expectancy out there.”

 

“Survived four ooman days.”

 

“Maybe.  But I wasn’t going to make it to five.”

 

Hunter snorted, then nodded.

 

“I will give care.”

 

“Is George going to be ok?”

 

“George is going to be weak.  He will need care always.”

 

Lauren nodded.  “I will do my best to give it to him.”

 

Hunter watched her for a long moment.  Then he went to bed. Lauren watched him for a while.  Then she came over to be the big spoon.

 

Hunter purred.

 

\----

 

Lauren was scooping the last of the apple sauce out of the ration pack with her finger and licking her finger clean.  She was still very aware that the guaranteed human safe food was a finite resource. Hunter came over, sat next to her, and grabbed the tin foil packed from her.  He held it up to his face as though he was sniffing it. He had no nose or even anything that seemed like nostrils. He swiped his finger through the sauce and looked at it.

 

Then he looked at her.

 

He pointedly retracted his claw like finger nail and held his finger out to Lauren.   She looked at him. Then looked at George. Then she wrapped both of her hands around his and slowly brought his finger to her mouth.  Watching him intently, she slowly sucked the applesauce off his finger. She ran her tongue around it getting as much of the apple sauce off as she could, then slowly pulled his finger out of her mouth, dragging her lips over it as she went.  It came out with a faint wet noise, and she said. “You understand that if you show me Yautja affection, I will be badly injured and probably die, right?”

 

Hunter was still watching her mouth.  Then he leaned away and nodded.

 

“OK,” Lauren said, “as long as we are clear on that.”

 

Then she slapped him as hard as she could.

 

It was like slapping a concrete wall, her fingers stung.

 

Hunter pinned her to the floor and roared.

 

Lauren screamed back at him.  He put one hand on her neck, then quickly moved it before stroking her face in the most gentle version of a slap she could imagine.

 

She reached up, grabbed at couple of tendrils and squeezed and yanked at the same time.  She actually managed to move his head a little. She didn’t let go, but shouted, “Get off me!”

 

Hunter scrambled back, but ended up dragging her along since she was still holding on tight.

 

She grabbed one of his mandibles with her other hand and wrenched his head to the side before kissing his cheek, ending it with a lick.

 

Hunter was purring and trembling and twitching his hands like he didn’t know what to do with them.

 

Lauren let go and stumbled back. He took a step towards her.  “No! You go sit with your back to the wall!”

 

He was breathing heavily now, but he did as he was told.  Lauren stepped out of her coveralls. She came over and straddled one huge thigh and started to grind against it.  Hunter took hold of her hips. Lauren shook her head and slapped him again. Then she ran her hand down his chest. Carefully the first time, ranking his skin with her nails the second.

 

Hunter copied the first version.  He found where her nippled were tight and straining against the cloth of her sports bra.  He ran a thumb over them. Lauren groaned, then pushed his hands away do she could pull off her sports bra.  Hunter stared at her chest, the carefully ran his thumbs over her nipples.

 

Lauren grabbed one of his lower mandibles with each hand and yank down so that she could kiss his forehead.  Hunter put his hands on her ass and lifted her up and forward, bringing one breast to his wide open mouth. Lauren let to to grab his shoulders for balance.  He carefully scraped his inner teeth over her skin, then began stroking her breast with his mandibles as his inner teeth moved further up over her nipple pressing into the skin just past it.  His tongue was not human feeling. It was more like a slimy wet finger but it was warm and felt prehensile as it curled around the tip of her and stroked.

 

Lauren grabbed his wrists, dug in her fingernails and moved his hands so she could go back to grinding against his thigh.  Hunter broke her grip, letting her leave claw marks on his wrists in the process. He brought her hand to his chest and dragged them over his skin, before pressing them against a damp spot on his abdomen.  Lauren tapped his cheek so he let go of her breast, leave a string of saliva connecting them. The wetness was coming from a gap between the scale plates just above his pubic bone. She frowned and ran her hands over that spot and the plates began to separate.  Hunter grabbed one wrist and pushed her hand more firmly against him. Her fingers slid into the space. She slapped him again with her other hand and a pair of paper white, slime covered cocks pushed her out of his body, then followed behind her.

 

Lauren stared at him.

 

He was purring and trilling and, “There is no way I can fit both of those inside of me.”

 

He stopped vocalizing and watched her.  She wrapped a hand around each and started pumping as she humped his thigh.  Hunter slammed his head against the wall, his mandibles stroking the air. Then his hand caught one of hers and he tightened her grip.

 

“Hurt.”

 

“I’m trying not to.”

 

Hunter growled at her.  Then he gave her a spank that was hard enough to sting, but not really hurt and started clawing at his own chest.

 

The hand where he had made her clamp down went off first.  It didn’t spurt so much as ooze. It started to shrink in length, but grow in width.  Hunter moved her hand down to squeeze the base then nudged her other hand to encourage her to continue.  She ignored him, but dipped a finger in his cum and carefully tasted it.

 

It wasn’t exactly pleasant.  She frowned. Hunter hissed. Lauren punched him in the chest.

 

“Do you have enough self control to tell me when you are going to cum?”

 

He watched her for a long moment.  Then he nodded.

 

Lauren took the tip of him into her mouth and Hunter started to whimper.  Lauren pulled away. They locked eyes for a moment. “You didn’t bite anything off of me, I won’t bite anything off of you.  But, I don’t want your cum in my mouth, so get your timing wrong and I won’t do this again. Understand?”

 

Hunter nodded, slammed the back of his head against the wall again and closed his eyes.  

 

It wasn’t the best blow job she had ever managed.  He barely fit in her mouth, plus she had to concentrate on bobbing her head, stroking the rest of him with her hand, while clenching his other cock in her other hand.  Hunter didn’t move his body, but his mandibles clenched and unclenched and he was making a little whining sound that she had never heard from him before.

 

Suddenly he grabbed her shoulders, pushing her away, barely a second before he came again, this time splashing on her chest.  Hunter grabbed both his cocks in one hand and Lauren in the other and carried her back to the bed. He lay down and draped her over his back.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To get a better understanding of Hunter's parts. I combined a couple of ideas.
> 
>  
> 
> [Alligator cock](https://youtu.be/3ED_exG3qLk)  
> [Snake hemipenis](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BMJiFcBCEAAAF3p.jpg)
> 
>  
> 
> They are both scientific images, which should minimize the impact on your browser history.
> 
> As always, comments make the writing go.


	8. Chapter 8

Hunter was out like a light and Lauren was frantically trying to rub one out in the shower before he woke up.  She had been able to take care of him, but as soon as he had popped two cocks, all bets were off on the idea of her cumming along with him.  It wasn’t really working for her. The texture on the skin on his thigh was so much better than her fingers. And he hadn’t even gotten her panties off.

 

Or her off.

 

“Ok,” Lauren said to herself, “this isn’t working.  Just go lay down and try to-” She screamed as something brushed her back.  It was Hunter squeezing into the shower behind her. He reached around her and put his fingers where hers had been only moments ago.

 

Laurend grabbed his wrist.  Hunter stopped. She turned around and looked at him.  “Wow, you have a lot of fluids to wash off.” He was just standing there looking down at her.  “I’ll let you have the shower.”

 

She squeezed past him and looked around for her clothes.  “Where are my clothes? I remember placing them carefully in a heap on the floor.”

 

Hunter laughed, scrubbing the mix of spunk and dried blood off of himself.

 

“Dirty.”

 

“Yeah, but that’s why you are in the shower.”

 

Shaking his tendrils under the stream of water one more time Hunter stepped out and ran his hands carefully down Lauren’s arm.

 

She shivered.  “Not fun. It isn’t exactly peak operating temperature in here.”

 

Hunter shrugged.  “Heat takes fuel.”

 

“Oh god!  Why’d you tell me that? Now I’m going to worry about us running out and freezing to death in the vacuum of space.”

 

He laughed again.  Then bent down and nuzzled her face.  He tilted her head to the side and stroked her neck with his mandibles.  His mouth was inches for her ear, but his translator across the room said,  “Show me.” 

 

She didn’t move.

 

His palm pressed carefully against her mons.

 

“Show me.”

 

“Neither of us has had enough sleep.  And I haven’t had access to a razor in weeks.”

 

Hunter just frowned.  He picked her up and started to carry her back to the bed.

 

“Just so you know, tucking me under your arm like a parcel is about the least dignified way to move me.”

 

Hunter froze.  “How?”

 

“Put me down.”  He did. “If you put one arm under my knees and the other behind my back.”

 

Hunter shook his head.

 

“Why not?”

 

“Lauren small.”

 

“And?”

 

He looked at her, “Not two hands big.”

 

“OK.  But it would be more comfortable to me to be cradled.”

 

He considered this.  Then he picked her up, with one hand, and settled her on his hip as though she was a toddler.

 

“Marginally better,” she conceded.

 

He laughed again.  He lay her down and pulled the blanket over them both.  “Show me.”

 

“Ugh.  Can you just let that one go?”

 

His mouth was suddenly between her legs.  Hands holding her ass, mandibles flared wide and pricking into her skin on her belly and butt.  He scraped his teeth over her folds and made her jump hard enough that his teeth pricked her skin drawing blood.  He pulled away and frowned. Then he lay on his back and positioned her so that she was straddling his thigh again.

 

He was watching her intently.

 

She crawled off of him.  “I’m not ready to play with you again yet.”

 

Hunter made a dissatisfied sound.

 

“Hey!  Just because that happened once, doesn’t mean it is going to be a regular thing.”

 

He slid his hand down her body and stopped on her belly.  “Show me.”

 

Lauren pushed his hand off of her.

 

Hunter started to purr.

 

Lauren scrambled away from him.  “Is this where you prove I can’t make you stop?”

 

He stopped purring.  They spent some time staring each other down, then Hunter looked away and lay down.  He used her voice to say, “Thank you.” And that was odd, because Lauren didn’t remember saying that to him.

 

“Thank you for bringing George home.”

 

Hunter watched her for another moment, then lay down so that his back was to her.  Lauren came over to be the big spoon.

 

\----

 

Lauren sat up with a start.  She didn’t remember exactly what she had been dreaming about, but it was something about sex and not being able to cum.  Her body was dripping. Hunter was sitting, not touching her, watching. His mouth was opening and closing. No nose. Lauren scrambled away from him when she realized he was smelling her.

 

He didn’t move.  He just watched.

 

“What? You are still big and scary.  I’m not going to just roll over and spread my legs for you.”

 

Hunter crawled slowly toward her.  He got quite close before he said, “kiss.”

 

Lauren was shivering. 

 

It was as close to a human kiss as he could get.  On her shoulder where he liked stroking her with his mandibles, but this time he closed his mouth and just pressed it against her.  Lauren tried to relax.

 

“Yautja kiss.”   Now he opened his mouth, pressed his inner teeth against her a licked at her skin as he stroked her.

 

It was surprisingly comforting.

 

He licked and stroked her neck next, then human kissed her mouth.  The yautja kiss was wrong. There were no lips, his mouth held her whole head and his tongue felt weird as it slipped into her mouth.

 

She gave it an experimental suck.  It wiggled, it was a little bit forked.

 

Hunter started trilling.  He slowly brought a hand up and ran his thumb over her breast as he made a questioning sound.

 

“Ok, as long as you are careful.”

 

He was,  this time his inner teeth barely scraped her, but his tongue was amazing.  Lauren was breathing harder now. Hunter slid his hand between her legs and pressed his palm flat on the floor so that she could grind against his wrist.  And god help her, she was.

 

She still couldn’t cum.

 

She made an involuntary sound of frustration.  Hunter watched her squirm for a moment, then he caught her hands in one of his and pinned them over her head.  His other hand went to her thigh as he pushed it up and open, holding her knee almost level with her shoulders.  He hadn’t taken his eyes off her face. Then he stuck out his tongue. It was clearly not evolved to be on the outside of his teeth.  It looked quite tongue tied, actually, but he wiggled the forks independently at her and made the questioning chirp from earlier.

 

Lauren closed her eyes and nodded.

 

This time when his mouth went between her legs it was slow.  His hands were holding he still so that she couldn’t twitch into his teeth by accident.  At first he was just lapping at her folds, drinking up the juices he found there with the most indecent, enthusiastic slurping noise.  

 

Lauren started to whimper.

 

Hunter froze.

 

The sob was out before she could stop it and just like that, Hunter wasn’t touching her anymore.

 

“Hurt?”

 

Lauren shook her head, “You are so close to the right spot, but not-”

 

“Show me.”

 

She scrambled up a little and pulled open her lips, she gathered some wetness and gave herself a rub.

 

Hunter had her back in position in an instant and this time he didn’t miss, lapping at her clit and teasing it with each fork of his tongue.  Lauren’s legs started to shake. A moment later she strained against his hands as she came.

 

Hunter either didn’t notice or was expecting more because he barely slowed making her cum again a moment later.  Now he slid his hand down her thigh and eased his thumb into her as he slowed his attention to her clit. This time when she came, she clamped down hard on his thumb and arched into his mouth with a gasp before wiggling away and folding her legs closed.  She sat there panting, shaking and overwhelmed. Hunter scooped her up and cradled her as he brought her back to bed.

 

She still got to be the big spoon as he hissed, “Sleep.”

  
  



	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for biological functions and health care

Lauren woke up, she was trussed up like a christmas turkey.  “Hunter?”

 

He chittered something from the desk.  Lauren was able to turn her head enough to see she was basically wrapped up like a burrito.  So was George laying next to her. “What’s going on?”

 

“Hurt.”

 

“I hurt you?”

 

“Hurt you.  Need help.”

 

“I… don’t feel hurt.  Did you drug me?”

 

Hunter didn’t reply.

 

“Hunter, what did you do?”

 

“Hurt you.  Getting help.”

 

“What?  What happened?  Hunter, tell me what happened!”

 

He stood up abruptly from the desk and walked toward her.  “Sleep now.”

 

Then he shot her.

 

\-----

 

Lauren woke up on a hospital bed, people were shouting.  Something crashed near her. She managed to get her eyes open in time to see someone in a lab coat sail through the air and crash against a way. George was sleeping at her feet.  

 

She was under a hospital blanket, laying with her ass on a crinkly pad.  “I realize this is a cliche, but where am I and what the hell is going on?”

 

The shouting stopped and suddenly Hunter in full combat gear was right next to her.  “Hurt. Got help.”

 

His wrist blades shot out, they were dripping red.  Lauren squeaked and tried to squirm. He cuddled her close, then he looked at the remaining scientists and said, “Help.”

 

Lauren started to wiggle out of the bed when she realized she was still naked.  And her period had started. “Ugh. I need a bath and some clothes before-”

 

One of the white coats shook his head and said, “We’re going to need to swab you for-”

 

“Don’t interrupt me.  I want a bath and some clothes and a box of tampons, then I’ll talk to the big guy about letting you take my blood, or scan me or whatever.  But I’m betting that you just pulling a needle on me isn’t going to go over so well.”

 

The one woman in the room nodded and pointed to the man laying on the floor,  his neck and right leg were bent in ways that suggested he wasn’t getting up. “That’s what happened to Harold.  Can you walk?”

 

Lauren shrugged, “I think so.”

 

The woman walked over to something that looked like a fridge.  Hunter raised one arm and pointed at her back.

 

“You need to explain what you are doing,” Lauren said.  “You’re making him nervous.”

 

“It’s a blanket warmer.  It should do the trick until we get you to a shower room. You are in a nuclear missile silo in South Dakota.  The … big guy contacted us at project Stargazer and told us to meet him here with a medical team.”

 

Lauren took the blanket.  “That doesn’t sound like him.  Hunter isn’t exactly talkative.”

 

“We have a translation program.”

 

“So does he.  Look, what’s your name?”

 

“I’m Dr Sawyer.”

 

“I’m Lauren,” she held out her hand.

 

“Um… I don’t think I should touch you unless he says it’s ok.”

 

“O...K… When he called for a medical team, did he say why?”

 

“He said you were hurt.  We did an MRI and can’t find anything.  We wanted to run some lab tests and that’s when you woke up.”

 

“Missile silos come with MRIs?”

“It’s on a truck.  We brought it with us.”

 

“Huh.”

 

“Yeah, he didn’t have a lot of patience for that.  I think whatever scanner he uses is better. He had uploaded a scan of you before we were even done.  A few benign cysts, and a bit of early arthritis in your left knee, but other than that, nothing. Nothing we could find anyway.”

 

Lauren remembered he had lifted he right leg and blushed.  They were walking towards the showers. Hunter was following close by, obviously ready to slaughter everyone.

 

Dr Sawyer nodded at him, “Is he always like that?”

 

“Pretty much.”

 

Hunter roared and put Lauren in the football carry.

 

“I can walk!”

 

Hunter ignored her.  Lauren realized she was leaving a blood trail.  And it was the really gross and clotty day one blood trail.

 

“Um… is that why we are here?”

 

Moving almost comedically slow, Hunter repositioned her so that he was cradling her instead.

 

Jeff trotted along behind them, licking the floor clean.  Lauren gagged. Then she saw George doing the tripod hop along with them and her heart went soft.  “He’s OK!”

 

Hunter just grunted.

 

The shower was a gang shower.  It was weird taking a shower with seven scientists, an alien and two alien critters watching her.  Having access to shampoo for the first time in a month almost made up for it. When she was finished, Dr Sawyer handed her a pair of absorbent underwear and a pair of hospital pyjamas.

 

“Can I have something to eat?  Like real food? I’ve been living on MRE’s so maybe it’s my sodium that is messed up.” Lauren thought some more.  “Or, I mean, I did eat a couple of lizard things on that other planet. Maybe I have a parasite?”

 

“If it’s a parasite, it was too small to see on the MRI.” Dr Sawyer replied.  “We will need blood and stool samples to investigate that further.”

 

Hunter spoke for the first time since she woke up.  “How... did eat a couple of lizard things on that other planet?”

 

“I killed the first one with a stick.  I cooked it over the fire until it was-  until I thought it was well done. The critters ate my leftovers.  Then they brought me another one the next day and I cooked and ate that too.”

 

Hunter turned toward the critters.  Lauren couldn’t even pretend to read his expression with the mask on.

 

“Hunter?  If there is something wrong with me, the doctors are going to need to look at my blood to check for problems.  Unless you can tell us what’s wrong.”

 

He grunted.  

 

“Is that a yes?”

 

Nod.

 

After that, things moved fast.  They took her blood, then gave her a couple of doses of magnesium and a collection container for when they kicked in.  She was grilled for information, not that she had any. The questions made Hunter laugh. The critters got scritches but eventually got bored.  They ended up walking towards the scientists in a very predatory way.

 

“Umm… Did you feed the critters?”

 

“Pets hunt.”

 

“Yeah…. There isn’t anything here to hunt.”

 

Hunter just snorted.

 

“If you want people to help you, not eating them is a good place to start.”

 

Now Hunter flat out laughed.  “Want weapons. Not care if critters eat a few.”

 

“I care.”

 

He didn’t even turn to look at her.

 

“Umm...” Dr Sawyer interrupted.  “What do they need to eat?”

 

Lauren shrugged, “A couple of pounds of raw dog food each would probably work.”

 

The people in lab coats seemed to travel as a heard.  Dr Sawyer left and the others hurried out. That left Lauren, Hunter, the critters and two armed soldiers.  She couldn’t help noticing he was positioned firmly between them and her.

 

“Hunter?” Lauren said softly.  “You didn’t want them taking my blood.  I’m betting that means they won’t find what’s wrong that way.  Can you tell me where we should be looking?”

 

Hunter didn’t move but his weapons system started and the targeting system focused on one of the soldiers chest.

 

“I know you are perfectly safe if they shoot you.  But if they miss, I’m not.”

 

Hunter snarled.  He scooped Lauren up and headed towards the door.

 

“You are supposed to stay here,” one of the soldiers said.

On his way past, Hunter absentmindedly pushed the man through a wall.

 

“Where are we going?”

 

No reply.

 

“I could walk there.”

 

This time he snorted, but he didn’t set her down.  The critters were trotting along behind them. They got outside just in time to see a personnel truck drive off.  

 

Doctor Sawyer turned toward her, “Oh!  Hey! We sent out for food, it should be here soon.”

 

Hunter ignored her and walked a little way out into the field and onto his ship that Lauren couldn’t see.  The door closed behind them. The critters were still on the other side of the door. Hunter lay her gently in the sleeping area, and pulled off his mask.  There was a red puddle stain on one of the hides. 

 

Lauren groaned in embarrassment, “I’m sorry!   I will figure out how to clean that up.”

 

Hunter growled.  He carefully put his hand over her belly.  “Hurt.”

 

“Yeah, I have cramps.  That’s normal. It hurts.  I don’t have pain meds. I just have to suffer through.”

 

Hunter snarled, “Suffer?”

 

“It’s ok.”  She thought about that.  “Wait. Do Yautja lay eggs?”

 

Hunter narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything.

 

“I’m just having my period.  It’s normal. I’m going to hurt and bleed for four or five days.  Then it will stop and I’ll be fine for twenty three or twenty four days, then I will bleed again. It’s just how our reproductive cycle works.”   
  


Hunter’s mandibles went slack.

 

“It’s ok.   It just means that women need more iron than men and we need a way to keep clean while we are bleeding.”

 

He played back her voice.  That was weird. These days he had figured out how to synthesis a deeper voice to speak to her. “Four or five days,”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Of hurt and bleed.”

 

“Yes?  I would like to get a little extra sleep if I could, but mostly women just have to manage.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comment please. I'm not sure where I am going with this. But what the hell.


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